The newly restructured Utah Transit Authority Board adopted a policy Wednesday aimed at ending years of agency scandals involving “transit-oriented developments” near rail stations.
Ordered by the Legislature, the shift is designed in increase transparency in choosing partners to develop projects on UTA-owned land near stations and will set objective ranking criteria in deciding when and where to do such projects. The policy also seeks to include more affordable housing in such developments and to more closely involve affected cities.
“It will be a process that the public can see. It will make sense to them,” said Paul Drake, UTA’s senior manager of real estate and transit-oriented development.